By Stephen Naimsith

LONELINESS kills. A flurry of research has suggested that it is more than just a matter affecting someone’s mood or happiness and can actually increase mortality.

Loneliness is also more damaging to health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, more harmful than obesity, lack of exercise or binge drinking.

Age Scotland has reported that 282,000 older Scots feel lonely some or most of the time while the latest Scottish Household Survey found one in four people over the age of 60 say they can go more than a week without meeting a friend, neighbour or relative.

Such findings have provoked a plethora of initiatives to tackle the problem. There’s a Scottish Government strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness, and charities such as Re-engage (formerly Contact the Elderly) and the Campaign to End Loneliness.

Concern has focused particularly on the elderly, but loneliness and social isolation can affect people of all ages.

The so-called Chatty Chairs introduced at intu Braehead shopping centre this week are just the latest attempt to counter the “epidemic” afflicting Scotland.

According to the company, this is the first time a Scottish shopping mall has installed a seating area that actively encourages people to talk to each other. Rather than simply slumping with the shopping bags or staring at a phone, the mall’s customers are being encouraged to stop and say hello to someone while they rest their feet.

“A few minutes’ chat started by a simple ‘hello’, or ‘how are you doing today?’ could make someone’s life a whole lot better and make them feel less isolated,” said Lydia Brown, intu Braehead’s community development manager.

It may be a first for a shopping centre, but it is far from a new concept. In March, Encore Catering, Glasgow City Council’s events and hospitality wing, introduced Chatty Cafes in a number of venues across the city including St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, Bellahouston Sports Centre and the Tramway. Tables in the cafes of these attractions have been badged up to encourage talking to strangers.

Then there are the Craft Cafes run by the social enterprise Impact Arts. Aimed at older people at risk of isolation and loneliness, this project seeks out older people aged 60-plus who are alone and may face financial barriers or other problems which make it particularly difficult to overcome their isolation.

Here, art tuition is the carrot to get people through the door while sales of arts and crafts can benefit the community. Meanwhile, participants can access other services – advice from the Citizens Advice, health improvement work, mental health support if needed and financial advisers.

One of the most dynamic charities working in this area is Renfrewshire’s Roar – Connections for Life, which offers a range of options for older people facing isolation.

Its chief executive Nicola Hanssen says loneliness is often linked to loss. “Some people become lonely quite abruptly on the death of the last person they spent most time with, others it’s a gradual and insidious onset combined with illness, ambivalence and lack of appetite to make the effort required until it becomes health-damaging.”

It is difficult to put yourself in the place of someone unless you have experienced true loneliness yourself, she says. For some, the dread of coming back home to an empty house can paradoxically mean they don’t go out at all. It can make just staying in a less painful option, she says.

“We got a phone call this week with a lady who said, ‘Oh hen, I’m so lonely – can you help me? This is hugely rare,” Hanssen explains. “Maybe one in 500 people will confront it like this. So you need a ‘really wide open door’.”

There is another key aspect of Roar’s approach to tackling isolation, however. Hanssen is passionate about the vital importance of mobility. Older people who lose their mobility can become more sedentary which compounds the problem until physical problems make it harder and harder to get out and about.

Roar works hard to spread the message that this is something older people can do something about for themselves. Preserving the ability to stand up from a sitting position or get yourself into and out of a car is crucial.

In particular, it can reduce the risk of falls. The charity says: “Falls cause loneliness and loneliness causes falls and they rob older people of the lives they want to live.”

Its Stay Mobile Stay Connected campaign works to give older people and those around them good advice on this. But some of its most important work is with younger volunteers, Hanssen says. These people could be aged from 16 to 65, who have often been affected by drug misuse, adverse childhood experiences, or mental health problems.

“Volunteering and becoming valued, having purpose, being with people outwith their peer or home environment who are also seeking connection and a way to overcome life challenges can be utterly transformative.”

Roar isn’t the only charity seeking to bring the generations together. Age Scotland’s campaign, Share What You Love, aims to cut levels of loneliness in half by 2025 by encouraging younger people to spend regular, quality time with older people.

Adam Stachura, Age Scotland’s head of policy and communications, says this will most often be those already in their lives and who live alone, doing things which they both enjoy.

“We know that younger people feel more positive after spending time with older people so hopefully this will help forge a culture change so that people from all generations have better long-lasting social connections,” he said.

“Our research would suggest that there is an older person on every street in Scotland who feels lonely all or most of the time, which is absolutely heart-breaking,” he added.

Quite simply, loneliness kills, he says. Research suggests it increases mortality by 26%.

But the message is an optimistic one. “This public health crisis is one which we can beat and levels of loneliness drastically reduced if it becomes a national priority,” he continues.

The Scottish Government’s strategy to tackle loneliness and isolation is one of the first of its kind in the world and organisations including Age Scotland helped shape it. But the charity, and others, warn it will take considerable effort to turn its aspirations into tangible action. “It is important that this issue becomes a priority right across government as every department will be able to have a positive impact on reducing loneliness,” Stachura says.

“There is so much great work going on in Scotland to tackle loneliness among people of all ages, so the challenge is to join it all up and scale up the things which work well. Often it is the simple things which are the most effective.”